COMMONS AMENDMENT. (Hansard, 19 July 1937)

§ LORD STRATHCONA AND MOUNT ROYAL
My Lords, the subsection affected by this Amendment is that dealing with the important duty which will fall on the district committees in deciding what benefits in kind are to be allowed in lieu of cash wages, and what value is to be placed on those benefits. The Amendment, which deals only with the valuation aspect of the committee's duties in this respect, was made in response to representatives that if the committees were left entirely without guidance in the matter of the value to be placed on the 558 various items comprised in benefits in kind, they might come to diverse conclusions which might operate unfairly as between the various districts. There is no suggestion that uniform equivalents should be laid down. Obviously the value to be placed on, for instance, a supply of coal must be related to the price of coal in the particular district concerned. I beg to move.

LORD SALTOUN
My Lords, before your Lordships agree I should like to ask my noble friend for some further elucidation of this question. The Bill as it originally stood left these perquisites, and their value, to be assessed by the local committees, and it is essentially a local problem. These perquisites are of an extremely varying character; they vary as between farm and farm. They vary very often by reason of the farm's position in the county, or the character of the farming which is being carried on there. To take my noble friend's illustration of coal, it is obvious that coal delivered at a farm which is ten miles from a town has a higher value on the farm than coal delivered within a mile of the town. The perquisites are a most valuable asset to the farm worker because they ensure that whatever obligations he has incurred he always has enough to feed and warm him, and to keep him in a fit condition to carry out the arduous work of the farm. Moreover, these perquisites are very valuable as a means of good will between farmer and worker, because while the perquisites are almost always of a high character a farmer who wishes to be friendly with his men will see that these perquisites are of a uniform good character, and the men, as I know from experience, are extremely prompt to respond to advances of this kind. These committees have got to work in an atmosphere of good will, and the working out of a point of this kind seems to me essentially a matter for these committees. I can imagine no better way in which they could get to work. Moreover, the value put upon these perquisites is precisely a point on which local knowledge is required, and it is of extreme importance that a man's own representative on the local committee should be associated, and closely associated, with the value put upon a perquisite.

§ LORD STRATHCONA AND MOUNT ROYAL
My Lords, as I endeavoured to point out to the noble Lord when I spoke before there is, I think, no suggestion that a uniform equivalent should be laid down. It is plain that there should be some general uniformity of practice in regard to the value of such things as a house, milk, coal or potatoes, or anything you may like to suggest, but the point of the Amendment is to give the committee that guidance which I think it is obvious they will need on the question of valuation. Such general guidance on this particular aspect of their functions will not interfere in any way with the power given to the committees to determine the appropriate minimum wages for the district, and with that assurance I hope the noble Lord will feel satisfied.